Liz Gunn. Photo: RNZ / Jonty Dine
A High Court judge has set aside antivax campaigner and former broadcaster Liz Gunn's conviction for assault.
Gunn, whose real name is Elizabeth Cooney, was found guilty at a judge-alone trial last May of assaulting an airport worker three months earlier.
She was convicted and discharged at a sentencing in November.
However in a judgment released today, Justice Mary Peters has allowed Gunn to appeal the conviction following a hearing last week.
Justice Peters said a miscarriage of justice had occurred and Gunn's interaction with the airport worker fell within acceptable physical contact.
"It follows that I consider Ms Gunn's touch of [the worker's] arm was within the ambit of what the law considers generally acceptable physical contact occurring in everyday life, and so was not an assault in the sense of section 9 of the Act.
"I am satisfied the Judge erred, to such an extent that a miscarriage of justice has occurred.
"Given that, I am required to allow this appeal."
Justice Peters noted a conviction carried a "stigma" and a conviction for assault would be seen by many as more than a "fleeting touch".
"Moreover, that stigma is particularly relevant in this instance because Ms Gunn, now in her 60s, has an otherwise unblemished record."
Gunn visited family in Australia from time to time, Justice Peters said, and now needed to disclose her conviction when she did.
"The court has often recognised that there will be occasions in which a defendant's offending is so trifling that consequences such as those to which I have
just referred are themselves out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending. This is such a case.
"The appeal against conviction is allowed. The conviction for assault is set aside."
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